Workplace
MANAGEMENT
Worn Out at
Work If you’re not getting enough shut- eye, your lack of sleep is affecting your day job. Here’s how.
“YOU’RE A ZOMBIE.” “You’re just going through the motions.” These are a couple of the phrases Ryan Sutherland uses to describe what it’s like working 60 hours a week during tax season and dealing with a newborn who’s up half the night. “The lack of sleep was challenging. I spent more time working in a sleep-deprived state; a job that would normally take me 10 hours to do took 13 to 15,” says Sutherland, recalling the many times he would have back-to-back client meetings on no sleep at the Saskatoon offices of accounting firm MNP LLP.
16 | CPA MAGAZINE | MAY 2016
Eventually his wife, Lindsay, who was
getting a pathetic five hours (or less) of broken shut-eye a night, called in a sleep coach to help train baby Parker. Within days, the boy was falling asleep quickly, waking up once for a feeding and going right back down. “Everything got better as soon as we started to sleep,” says Sutherland. He’d always prioritized eating well, getting exercise and catching Zs, but the baby-plus-tax-season combo made him value his trips to Dreamland even more. When baby Cailen came along two years later, the family hired another sleep coach — again during tax season — to make sure everyone got the rest they needed, allowing them to func- tion at their best during the day. Exhaustion and sleepless nights aren’t
unique to new parents: about 40% of all Canadians are tired. So why is it a big deal if millions of folks yawn through the day because they’re not getting the recom-
mended seven to nine hours a night? Sleep hugely affects work and can really do a number on productivity in the office. There’s no doubt that sleep deprivation makes work less efficient. “Fatigue and sleep problems are insidious; they start out really subtle,” says Shelly Bischoff, a senior occupational health consultant and founder and director of Ptolemy and Associates Inc. in Calgary. On a physiological level, getting
enough sleep makes good things happen — it resets our immune systems and revs up our metabolism. Less sleep has been linked to just about every undesirable health outcome: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer and a shorter life expec- tancy. People with underlying mental health issues such as depression often find their symptoms get worse sans sleep. And when insomnia is triggered by late- night work and too much stress, folks can spiral into the unhealthy habit of staring
Mike Constable
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
